Chris Jordan: Running the Numbers

In this series, begun in 2005, Jordan envisions staggering statistics of American consumption. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: two million bottles are depicted in a larger-than-human-scale digital photograph entitled "Plastic Bottles," literally representing the number of plastic beverage bottles used in the United States every five minutes. From a distance, many of Jordan's images appear as reductive color fields, minimal landscapes or geometric patterns, while others coalesce into recognizable imagery. With these aesthetically seductive, spectacularly large photographs, Jordan reminds us that our individual lifestyles contribute to a shockingly great cumulative impact on the planet.

Speaker:  Chris Jordan in dialogue with Manuel Maqueda (co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition)